There’s a somewhat less famous ap on facebook where you can make and do on-line jigsaw puzzles. You can use your own pictures, or purchase theirs. Your time to complete is ranked against everyone else that did the puzzle.
My question is, how, and why, are people “completing” the puzzles in impossible times? An easy puzzle that takes me, say 10 minutes shows that people have done it in under two. You can’t even click and drap every piece perfectly in that time, let alone “solve” the puzzle. The times are as impossible as claiming you did the NYT crossword in 30 seconds - you just can’t move that fast.
So how are these people cheating, and more importantly, why? You don’t get fame, fortune or money money moneyfrom being speedy. What’s the attraction?
If it’s just by a factor of 5, I think you underestimate how fast people can do things. Especially if they can practice the same thing over and over.
But, if you’re right, then chances are they are fakes designed to get people to keep trying.
As for why, it’s called gameification. We all have some desire to get a “high score,” when playing games with a score. For some, that desire is much stronger. It’s a desire for accomplishment and for that accomplishment to be recognized.
It’s why leaderboards and high scores work. It’s why sites that have upvotes and downvotes work. It’s why sports athletes train so hard. It’s why we have the Olympics. And it’s even why people who have enough money to live on still want more.
I can’t prove it, but I thought the times used to be even more ridiculous, like 5 seconds. Maybe I rememberd it wrong, maybe FB cracked down.
But I still can’t see how physically anyone can click and drag pieces that fast, even if you had the entire thing memorized and could tell exactly where they went. I guess one could learn a puzzle and play it hundreds of times, but then that’s my second question - why? I can’t imagine bragging rights over it. Maybe I don’t have enough imagination…
I don’t know if they’re still there, but there used to be a group of Russians who’d move from server to server in World of Warcraft (paying for it) so their leader could get more First! Achievements (a little record saying things like “FearlessLeader was the first person to kill 1000000 sheep in server Black Sheep”). They’d bust their asses working for him to get virtual bling, and when you spoke with one of them he’d be saying “he’s so good! Look how many achievements he has!”
One of my brothers spent years playing the same game time and again. It’s a WWII game; he spent years trying to conquer Denmark in less than 4 days from the start of the game.